The Union government will soon launch a national mission to tackle thalassemia — beginning with a country-wide screening exercise, wherever required. This will be modelled on the screening programme for sickle-cell disease, currently under way.
Thalassemia, like sickle-cell disease, is a genetically transmitted blood disorder, with doctors around the country reporting around 10,000-12,000 children born with the disease every year. Government officials say that the exact numbers from each State have not yet been collected.
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At a public programme in the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) in New Delhi to mark World Thalassemia Day, NITI Aayog chief Vinod K. Paul said the model being used to screen people in tribal belts for sickle-cell disease would be put to use for thalassemia screening as well. “We are working towards this,” Dr. Paul said.
Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda, who was present at the event, announced his government’s commitment to work towards thalassemia prevention over the next 25 years, while Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla promised to appeal to all MPs to start screening centres in their constituencies. Mr. Birla, an MP from Kota, has already facilitated one such screening camp in his constituency.
Explaining that the programme for thalassemia would be like the one designed for sickle-cell disease, Dr. Paul said it would be under the National Health Mission (NHM).
‘Get tested before having children’
Dr. Anupam Sachdeva of the SGRH said screening can safely tackle diseases such as thalassemia and the key was to spread awareness about getting screened and tested before having children.
The sickle-cell disease programme is run under the aegis of the National Health Mission, with the Health Ministry coordinating with the Tribal Affairs Ministry to successfully screen a total of nine crore people by 2027. According to the NHM dashboard, a total of over 21 lakh people have been screened for the disease as of Tuesday night.
Government officials have said that the dashboard data is not indicative of real numbers as some States are delaying the sharing of data.
At the event, Mr. Munda and Mr. Birla interacted with thalassemia patients and later handed out medicines and equipment to the needy patients.
